CHARLESTON — Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox assured southern lawmakers worried about major projects that the state plans to put up matching money for every federal outlay.

"Nothing has changed," Mattox said Tuesday in his second straight appearance before Finance Subcommittee C looking at highway financing.

Mattox also revealed he intends to sit down next week with officials of West Virginia and Marshall universities to come up with a long-range, 25-year plan of road building.

"We need a plan, a road map to follow, if you’re going to achieve these goals," he told the legislative panel.

Southern delegates remained convinced the six-year plan abandons their region, since no major project made the cut when the top 10 priorities were assigned.

"Something needs to be done to help southern West Virginia," Delegate Eustace Frederick, D-Mercer, told the transportation secretary.

Again, however, Mattox said, nearly repeating what he had said a day earlier, "We need more money — that’s the bottom line."

Before the meeting, Mattox emphasized the state has never retreated from its policy of corralling a 20 percent match when members of Congress earmark federal money to specific projects.

"Nothing has changed in the six-year highway program," he said.

In fact, he said, this is spelled out clearly in the memorandum attached to the plan that the state will find its match for specifically financed projects, including the King Coal Highway in Mingo County, the Coalfields Expressway in Raleigh, Wyoming and McDowell counties, New River Parkway in Summers and Raleigh, the East Beckley bypass, Shawnee Parkway in Raleigh, W.Va. 10 in Logan, and the Fairmont I-79 connector in Marion.

"We have always matched any money that our congressional delegation earmarked to specific projects in southern West Virginia and will continue to do so in the future," he said.

One holdup is that federal cash has dwindled because of the war in Iraq and the political shift in Congress back in the 1990s, he said.
"There are a lot of different factors that have led basically to diminish the amount of money available, not only for road work but also other infrastructure projects — water and sewer," Mattox said.

"There are fewer resources. It’s harder for members of Congress to specifically go after money for projects of interest to them. There’s a lot of competition for the limited amount of money available for highway projects and other infrastructure."

If $100 million were produced tomorrow for something like King Coal or Coalfields Expressway, he said, the state would pony up with its share — at the expense of its cash in hand.

"This year, we’ve got $91 million for paving, replacing small bridges," he said.

"If we got an additional $100 million in federal funds, we’d have $71 million left after using that 20 percent match."

But Delegate Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, continued to voice dismay over the failure of any major southern projects to make the top 10, comprised by consultants after examining 170 projects statewide costing an estimated $20 billion.

"We’re being left out and we don’t like that," he told Mattox.

"If you go up north, they’ll tell you the south is getting the money," the secretary replied. "You’re not going to make everybody happy."